Made it to Maine! (June 6)

Well, we've made it into our last state!  Just 4 more days of riding after today.  We started out riding north from Hampton Beach along the ocean.  Wikipedia tells me that "The Hamptons" is on Long Island NY, but judging by the size of the homes we rode by today they would fetch a pretty penny on the real estate market too.  After about 5 miles we turned inland for a while and played "guess what street you're on".  Seems they're not big into street signs in this part of the country.  For a while we were on the bike route of a triathlon (mostly going the other way so we didn't interfere with them).  How nice of the police to stop traffic for us, though.  There were lots of towns and small cities along the route - Portsmouth, Kittery, York, York Beach, Oconquit, Moody Beach and Kennebunkport.    We crossed the Piscataguah River in Maine at about mile 14.

Lots of rolling hills today; the kind that you almost build enough speed going downhill to get back up the other side.  The road surface was mostly crappy, though, so sometimes it was difficult to build up much speed on the downhill.  No shoulder and a bit of traffic (being a weekend), but lots of other cyclists and the cars were mostly good with us sharing the road.
I stopped in at an old Fort along the way - Fort McClary.  The first fort was build here in 1689 and it was involved in both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, although it had been deactivated by the federal government in 1846.  I assuming that the blocks you see in the foreground of the second picture are from the uncompleted work on the wall in the mid-1800s.

Just one SAG stop today.  At about 27 miles was the picturesque Nubble Light House, so we stopped there.  Some folks made it a lunch stop as well with fresh seafood being served near the gift shop.

We rode through lovely York Beach on the way to the lighthouse and also through a residential area on the point.  Incredible ocean views these people have!

Some pictures from a nice old church along the way.

Then it was on to Kennebunkport.  If you recognize the name, apparently the Bushes (of US presidential fame) have places there.  I went down to the beach and cruised the main street before stopping for a lobster roll.

It was then a short ride to our hotel in Kennebunk.  May T (from CCST 13) joined us for dinner and will ride with us tomorrow.

A beautiful ride, often along the ocean.  We had a good mix of beaches and the more typical Maine scene of waves crashing on rocks.  The day was still a bit chilly at times but lots of people out trying to enjoy the beach in any case.

Stats for the day:
92 km from Hampton NH to Kennebunk ME.  2100 feet of climbing.  Mostly sunny and temps 12C to 28C.

Back to the Beach (June 5)

We crossed into New Hampshire today and finally made our way back to the coast.  Yay!  I don't think we've been near a beach since tropical storm Ana in North Carolina a few weeks ago.

Another pretty ride.  Similar type of scenery as previous days.  We started the day backtracking a bit to get back on route.  Just gotta say that the first hill was a lot more fun going down at the end of yesterday's ride.  Mostly rural residential today with some small towns, some marshland and forest mixed in.  Lots of stone walls & fences.  I noticed a few more pine trees today and could smell some as well; nice.

We had a much appreciated reprieve from traffic noise for 3.5 miles on the Nashua River Rail Trail.  Saw these geese and beaver house from there.

Spotted this nice (and typical for these small towns) house in Dunstable.

At 26 miles we crossed another state line into New Hampshire; just one more to go!  Below is a picture of what it looks like when we come upon a state sign.  The bikes get positioned and cameras get passed around so that everyone gets their Kodak moment.

My Kodak moment.

A pretty uneventful ride.  Lots of ups and downs.  Mostly good surfaces but our share of cracked and lumpy pavement as well.  At one point my mirror flew off on a bumpy downhill.  I got back to it just in time to watch (and hear) a car run right over it - yikes!  I picked up the 2 pieces, put them back together, and I think it will last the rest of the trip.

One particularly lovely section of road.

A busy corner seafood diner shortly after crossing into NH.

An old buggy as lawn art.

We had lovely SAG stops at 20 and 40 miles, but were ahead of the 60 mile stop.  So - when a rural ice cream shop appeared at about 62 miles, we had to go in.  Delicious, and huge servings.  Only my second ice cream of the trip..........

The original plan called for us to stay in the lovely historic city of Exeter.  Seems there was no lodging available there, though.  It might have had something to do with the Phillips Exeter Academy graduation this weekend.

Some fun facts & figures about this private day & boarding school.  Established in 1781.  Over 1,000 students in grades 9 through 12.  Average class size 12.  Campus - 619 acres, 127 buildings.  Tuition $48,000 (boarding), $37,000 (day).

Exeter really did seem to be a nice old city.  Here are some other photos from my quick ride through town.

Once through Exeter we finally headed for the coast.  The headwind and cool breezes picked up as we made the final turn eastward toward Hampton Beach.  Lovely beach but way too many tacky tourist places on the main drag.  A bit chilly for dinner tonight.  People were coveting my puffy MEC jacket and my hand-knit toque.

Stats for the day:
124 km from Boxborough MA to Hampton NH.  4200 feet of climbing.  Temps 12C to 24C and back down again.

A Lovely Day in Massachusetts (June 4)

Back on the bikes today after a rest day in Sturbridge.  We stayed in a hotel that seems to cater to the conference crowd.  It was right on a little lake, which was nice, but really not much to do in town.  Walked the main drag for a bit, cleaned my bike of all the grit collected from two days of riding in the rain, out for a nice seafood dinner plus a bit of relaxing.

Today was a bit cool (13C to 18C) but no rain.  Pretty good riding conditions, actually.  It was a lovely ride today.  Lots of very quiet roads.  Most had pretty decent surfaces, which makes the downhills a lot more fun.  Hilly, but not rude hills in excess of 15%.  Fun hills, I thought.  Some cottage country, some rural suburbia, many small professional buildings, some small towns (Southbridge, Oxford, Manchaug, Whitinsville, Upton) and a pretty sizable outpost of civilization - Westborough.

Here's an example of one of our early quiet roads.

And a lake in cottage country

I found some interesting old buildings in Whitinsville.  The Whitin Mill complex was in operation for 133 years.  For a time it was the world's largest producer of textile spindles.  A local proclaimed it to be the world's largest mill during WW1 at over 1 million square feet.  It now seems to be home to small entrepreneurial and high tech enterprises.

Here are some other old buildings in town.  The population today is under 7000 so I'm sure there were more folks here when some of these were built.

The library.........

On one of the quiet roads this afternoon there was a Canada Goose family out for a stroll - mama, papa and about 6 goslings.  I slowed down thinking a family portrait might be nice but one of the adults went into attack mode.  Thus no picture.

Nice old bridge.

A quiet road from the afternoon.

Our c(l)ue sheet mentioned an ice cream shop worth a stop at 51 miles.  With that in mind I bypassed the inviting-looking one about 5 miles earlier.  Oops - cue sheet error, and no ice cream; yes, we should have stopped at the first one we saw.  Because of almost daily errors on the cue sheet in one way or another we have started calling them clue sheets.

We had a real treat for dinner tonight.  A woman who some of our riders had traveled with on previous epic tours invited us all to her place.  She has a lovely old home with a large yard and gardens.  She prepped lots of food and drink for us.  So kind of her.  This trip has been a bit of a rolling reunion tour.  Not too many days go by that we don't meet or ride with someone who has done a previous epic with one or more of this year's riders.

Stats for the day:
101 km from Sturbridge MA to Boxborough MA.  3700 feet of climbing.  Temps 13C to 19C.  Mostly overcast with a bit of sun.

Better Than Forecast (June 2)

With the forecast being less than stellar and a short mileage day ahead, our departure time was postponed until 10AM.  A bit of a sleep-in and a leisurely breakfast, and by 10 the rain had pretty much stopped.  Quite a few riders had already made their decision to hop in the van, though.  It was another cool day; the temperature started at 6C and rose all the way to 7C by the time we were done.  Pretty much the same terrain as yesterday - hilly, rural, farms and forests.  I did see a sign proclaiming maple syrup for sale, so we must be getting closer to Canada!

We must have been closer to civilization for parts of today, though, as some of the housing was newer - almost suburbish.  I knew there would be (and was looking forward to) lots of forests and greenery as we rode through the rural parts of the east coast, but I must say that I'm ready for some good ol' mountain views!

Just one SAG stop today and she was serving hot chocolate; perfect!  Up until that point we managed to stay pretty dry.  After the SAG the rain fell a bit harder for a while but not as much as yesterday.  The hill climbing also picked up so we stayed nice and warm.  And - better road surfaces today meant we could release the brakes and really enjoy the downhills.

We worked our way through a number of small towns and shortly after crossing I84 for the second time we came upon an old stone marker by the side of the road and a street sign denoting the state line.

It seemed that the moment we passed in to Massachusetts we entered cottage country - lovely tranquil lakes, their shorelines dotted with cottages, and quiet, hilly, twisting roads taking us from one lake to the next.

Close to the end of our ride we made a sharp right and immediately faced a huge hill.  I couldn't shift down fast enough and had to walk part of it.  Oh well - probably just as fast.  Back down the other side and then to our destination of Sturbridge.  We have a rest day tomorrow.  Not much to do in town but the hotel/conference centre is on a lake so hopefully the sun will shine.

Stats for the day:
65 km from East Windsor CT to Sturbridge MA.  Temps 6C to 7C and intermittent light rain.  Once again my GPS didn't like the thick cloud cover.  It showed 2500 feet of climbing but I'm guessing it was closer to at least 3500.